At first I was extremely skeptical about Nintendo's various claims to finally bring 1:1 motion controls to the Wii, having played games that were made intentionally to show off the Wii Motion Plus' capabilities I found that there was only a slight difference and such a slight difference didn't really give me great confidence when Nintendo announced the new Zelda game would feature the Motion Plus capability as a major component to the gameplay. I was wrong to doubt them.
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| I highly recommend the limited edition Wii-mote |
Aside from the story and adventure in Zelda games, I have always found the sword fights to be exhilarating. Twilight Princess showed us that it was possible to use the Wii's motion control to control your sword movements but it was far from perfect and like most Wii games it was mostly a case of waving the controller about for a bit. Skyward Sword takes the idea created for Twilight Princess and improves on it massively, promises of 1:1 motion control were true. The controls in Skyward Sword are without a doubt the best in any Wii game to date, and more than likely will remain the best until the Wii-U release. This is the first game in which I truly feel as if I am in full control of the characters actions and just by doing that makes the game so much easier to get into and makes each fight just as exciting as the last and not a repetitive task given under different circumstances, a trap that most games fall into these days.
But these excellent motion controls would mean nothing if the enemies were dispatched with a simple swish of a sword. The majority of the enemies that appear in Skyward Sword require you to be precise in your strikes, simple enemies like Deku Baba's that have appeared in countless variations of Zelda games and are usually killed with a swift slash across the stem now need to be attacked from a certain direction. This does not seem like a massive task, and it's not, but when confronted with 2 or 3 you need to time strikes and attack in the right direction or you could be stunned and another will attack you. Another recurrent enemy to undergo a revamp is the lizalfos. During Ocarina of Time I would dread coming up against one of these as they were a proper challenge compared to the usual enemies and the same applies now as it did then. The lizalfos now block certain areas of their bodies requiring you to attack the unblocked portions, take too long or attack the wrong area and you'll be punished. There are, of course, a lot more enemies to discover and fight but the main point is the usual tactics used for Zelda games (for me anyway) will not work in Skyward Sword. Each enemy you encounter requires a different way to attack them and the majority of them will have you stepping back and waiting for your chance to strike at a specific area as opposed to running in waving the Wii-mote around which could be done for most enemies in Twilight Princess.
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| Deku Baba's now require you to slice them depending on the way they open their mouth. |
As for the graphics, there was a rather large argument over whether or not they were too "cartoony" during the pre-release build up. Personally I like the cartoonish style in which Skyward Sword is presented. Just as I thought Wind Waker's extremely cartoonish presentation and Twilight Princess' darker, more realistic presentation was perfect for their Zelda tales, I believe that Skyward Sword's graphics are perfect for this epic story. Of course Skyward Swords graphics are much like Twilight Princess' in the sense that it is meant to look slightly more realistic but the colour palette is much brighter and the world doesn't feel as 'sharp'. I feel this brings the world to life in a much better way than the darker tones in Twilight Princess however I do feel like there are some parts of the game that could have done with being a bit darker and not quite as brightly coloured.
Of course one of the main points of any Zelda game is the story. Given that Skyward Sword is meant to be the starting point for all previous and future Zelda stories, the writers had to pull out the stops. And that they have done. Skyward Sword is the quintessential Zelda story but with added emotional attachment, in previous games you only briefly meet Zelda before setting out to save her and Hyrule from evil but in Skyward Sword you are introduced to Zelda right from the start and she holds your hand through the initial training period of the game. This greatly increased your attachment and makes you want to save Zelda after she is inevitably taken from you not because it's what is expected but because you feel you have to save her which is a great quality to have in any game. Apart from the Link - Zelda story you also learn a great amount about the history of the games. One of the great parts of Skyward Sword is learning about the creation of the Master Sword and how Link was a part of its creation but the way in which this Zelda game in particular manages to link all of the games together is amazing. I knew that Skyward Sword was the first game from the story's view but I was still a believer that every Zelda story was just a re-telling of the same original story (told throughout Skyward Sword) with different parts added or lost through the re-tellings much like a myth or legend but by the end of Skyward Sword there is no doubt that all the Zelda stories run in a timeline starting with Skyward Sword and ending with Wind Waker (not including hand held Zelda games).
Adventure is another massive part of any Zelda game and Skyward Sword delivers once again in this department. Although this is probably one of the smaller Zelda games in terms of land covered, the use of backtracking through previously explored areas with newly acquired items allows you to explore the same areas again and again without getting bored. There is always more to discover and having finished the game totalling 29 hours I know there is still more out there. There's plenty of treasures to search for in order to improve your items and as always there are heart pieces to hunt for if you want to give yourself the upper hand in a boss fight. If you just want to finish the game you will still have to retrace yourself a total of 3 times in each of the 3 areas below the "hub" world which, for some people, may seem like a cheaters way to elongate a game and get more hours out of it but each visit offers something new with a new section of the area being opened up each time or something drastic happening to change the landscape. In this way, while you are still re-visiting old areas they still feel new and fresh with each visit.
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| Ghirahim seems a bit camp at times but he will push your sword skills to the limit. |
Now to complete the Tri-Force that is a Zelda game, boss battles. Skyward sword offers some of the best boss battles I have had the joy to experience in any game, each boss requires you to use your newly acquired item (as is the case in all Zelda games) and then to use your sword wielding skills to defeat them. This gets increasingly harder as the further in you get the more the bosses will read your sword position and block accordingly meaning you have to act fast and accurately. The worst for this is the recurring main boss Ghirahim whose sword skills will put yours to the test and any wrong move against him will result in the loss of a heart, which will decrease rapidly if you don't know how to handle your sword. The best however, as always, is saved for last. Demise, the ever-present imprisoned evil, is your final challenge and will truly test your sword skills with every wrong move costing you 2 precious hearts. This final epic sword fight is by far the best fight I have experienced in any Zelda game, the closing chapter of the story builds and builds until you finally reach the point where you have to fight Demise and unlike previous final boss fights where you use various items to defeat the boss or have Zelda fire a light arrow to stun them, this fight is one on one with just your sword. It's the perfect end to a Zelda game.
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| You'll need to be on top form to take out Demise |
As is to be expected, Skyward Sword is a brilliant game. Some are even saying it's the best Zelda game to date. My view is that it is a massive move forward for the franchise in the way that it is controlled, the story makes just as much an impact and I would have to say is probably the best story in the franchise, the boss fights are epic and the combat in general is outstanding. However. I miss learning and playing the songs and the music in Skyward Sword is incredible so to be in control of that music would have felt amazing. I also think some of the items were just there as a filler, like the whip which is only used a few times in the game. The upgradable equipment could have been done better as well but as this is a first for the franchise I can forgive them. Overall I would say Skyward Sword is definitely among the top Zelda games and could easily have dethroned Ocarina in many peoples minds, if you love Zelda games or even just adventure games then get Skyward Sword.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword gets:
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| A complete Tri-Force! (3 out of 3) |
It's time to bring out the Wii for it's victory lap before the next generation take over, it's just a shame that such a great game couldn't have come earlier and shown all the "hardcore" gamers what the Wii is capable of.
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